March 16 - Fantasy Realm R.I.P.

It's snowing something crazy, and school is probably canceled tomorrow. Praise god. I really don't need to go to Social Studies and play a trivia "game." I fucking hate when teachers disguise work as a game. Not only do they not put absolutely any thought into the actual rules of the game, so that one group wins on some random technicality, but the "prizes" are an insult. Last time Elena won and got a pack of "Lord of the Rings Gummi Snacks," which were stale as hell because it had been a goddamn year since the movie came out. Just because you give people points doesn't make it a "game," nor does it make it "fun." I hate you Ms. Mafi.

Oh and a little story you can skip if you're one of the people who complains about me always talking about video games.

Ever since I was a kid, I've been going to this one video game store called Fantasy Realm. It's been moved to various locations over the years by the owner Guy, for a long time it was in this big yellow building in West Springfield, but the lease ran out so it got moved to this shitty location in the slums, next to some beauty salon with large signs letting me know that the spots we're parked in are reserved for salon clients only. Nearly half the games I purchase at various flea markets or garage sales have an old sticker on them letting me know they were purchased at Fantasy Realm years ago. The store was always a great place to go, it shares space with a comic shop so I get to watch all the colorful characters argueing over the properties of a +5 Goblin-slaying sword, and the people who worked there were always cool. Unfortunately, on Sunday I found out that the store was finally closing. Apparently, the new location sucked, no used games were being traded in and no one was buying anything. Guy sold the store and most of the stock, and was getting rid of whatever else he had at the Flea Market in Holyoke. I was a little crushed, but I ran over to the flea market to see what I could salvage from the remnants of a store that I had watched grow up. Guy wasn't there, just his pudgey son/nephew or whatever, who let me know all games were half price. The kid didn't seem too depressed over the closing, but that's fine. I wouldn't expect anyone else to think that the closing of a video game store meant something, at least to me. While some angry guy yelled at this eight year old kid about some stereos he supposedly bought from his dad and had come by to pickup, I rummaged through a tiny plastic bin, eventually finding a Super Nintendo game called HyperZone. I bought it for a paltry $2, just so I could have something I could remember as the last game I ever bought from Fantasy Realm. The kid put it in a bag and wished me a good day. If I was a whiny goth bitch, I would probably say "I wanted to cry," but I'm not, so I'll just say, it felt like the end of something. I took the game home, reflected a bit, and then played.

In 2006, The Console Wars will be waged with SEX!